TIME magazine’s influential TEENs
TIME magazine has published its list of Most Influential Teens and nearly everyone online has kicked off because reality tv (and Instagram) stars Kendall and Kylie Jenner are featured on the list.
The list also features young activists, entrepreneurs, scientists and extreme sports participants, some as young as 13 or 14, but this hasn’t been making headlines. Kendall and Kylie’s presence on the list however has.
While I love to Keep Up With the Kardashians as much as the next typical teenage girl may I suggest that a barrage of angry comments geared at Kendall or Kylie aren’t going to make them any less popular or take them off the list? Trust me, it won’t. And sure, we can all agree that there are some great people doing extraordinary things that the sisters share the honour of being on the list with. But perhaps it would do us all some good to pay more attention to those people than how annoyed we may be at Kendall or Kylie.
Moreover have we all forgotten the name and purpose of the list? It’s 2015 and the teen sisters are amongst the most influential teens on Earth. Kylie gets dreadlocs, the entire Internet is thrown into a frenzy and everyone has an opinion (and every Kardashian follower has to get them too). Kendall walks the runway with supermodels, lands magazine covers and still has time for goofy Instagram pictures and videos. Kendall has 39.8 million followers and Kylie 40.9 million on the picture-sharing site.
You and I and everyone else that feels the need to pay them any attention, whether it be to praise or criticise, have given them this power. Don’t like that they’re on the list? Make a polite but impassioned plea to TIME.
In the mean time, read the rest of the list and be inspired by the brilliant generation we are a part of. Congratulations to all the Influential Teens of the world, named and unnamed.